


throne laid on a mountain

by charleybradburies



Series: a just woman, an honorable man, and their heavy crowns [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canon Universe, Developing Friendships, Episode Related, F/M, Friendship, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, King Gendry, Kings & Queens, Letters, Male-Female Friendship, Meddling, Nobility, Not Canon Compliant, POV Arya Stark, POV Gendry, Queen Arya, Ravens, Royalty, Scheming, Season/Series 08, Short, Travel, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-03-05 09:06:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18825538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: Having contacted Lord Tarth to clarify the condition of the Stormlands and notify him of Gendry's legitimization, Sansa gets a letter after Daenerys' attack on King's Landing, declaring Gendry the rightful king.[title inspired by "kings" by tribe society]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I thought up. Let me know your thoughts and if you want any more of this (King Gendry + Queen Arya + Supportive Sansa & Friends) storyline!

Sansa writes to Lord Tarth, as she’s told him she intends, and for more than a moon, her letters and his lessons with Gilly are the most Gendry’s made to think about his claim.

Then Daenerys burns King’s Landing, and Lord Tarth writes again. Sansa receives the letter during court and has him retrieved due to its urgency, and somehow that in itself stokes most of the fear he can manage about it, in good part due to shock.

The Stormlands encourages him to press his claim against House Targaryen. He’s the only known living son of the last true, rightful king, Lord Tarth reminds, and any other known heir has perished; the throne is as much Gendry's as, if not more than, it could be Daenerys’ or Jon’s. If he intends to receive counsel wisely and care for people, as any ruler should, he’s the king at least some of the people want.

It’s an absurd idea, really. He’s known about his relation to Robert for years, but just weeks ago, he was no more than a smith to anyone else, and now because Ser Davos and Lady Sansa have spoken for him, someone wants him to be the king. 

“I’m so sorry to throw this at you like this, Gendry,” Sansa apologizes, not quite in tears. She hadn’t read the entire letter aloud and he can tell it probably included more description of the attack on the capital than either of them wants to know. He does his best to shut out his knowledge of who must be there, and is sure she's doing the same. “But with Cersei gone and Jon’s claim made public…”

“We need to make moves now, if we’re going to make them at all,” Bran finishes for her, seeming almost absent at first and then actually meeting Gendry’s eyes. “And we _should_ make them.”

Gendry pauses nervously, grateful that the hall, with its bated breath, gives him a moment.

“Does it really seem that we could win?” 

_That’s an important question, isn’t it? He couldn’t send people to their deaths in good faith, and at the point of burning cities Daenerys won’t be talking terms of surrender under the best of the current possible circumstances. What more could he make sure of?_

Sansa takes a deep breath.

“She has many Northmen, but not all of them. The Vale and the Riverlands are loyal to House Stark, and House Tarth, at the very least, has both money and men to give. I think if we begin preparations soon, we stand a decent chance, yes.”

“We can write to the Reach as well,” Gilly adds. “House Tarly was loyal to Queen Cersei. Encouragement from Sam and I might bring them to support a Baratheon claim.”

His breath shakes, but he nods firmly enough. Sansa lets out her own breath, and stands up from her place at the high table. 

“Your Grace,” she says, looking him in the eye as she gives a small curtsy, then she moves to her left, behind the empty chair between hers and Bran’s, and gestures at her chair. It takes him a second to realize what she means of it.

“Lady Sansa, Winterfell is yours. Keep the center; I’ll take your right.” 

She smiles and nods back at him, then moves to sit back down.

Gendry joins her at the table for what he knows will not be the last time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Added a bit with an Arya POV! Especially as I've done the fic with the afterlife AU as well, I thought I'd continue the storyline. Enjoy!

Arya first stops at an inn somewhere in the outer Crownlands, far enough from the capital that no ash is falling but close enough that the people are frightened. She's clear with the keeper that she has very little coin on her - she'd not taken Sandor's, this time - but this old woman does not care, having already decided to take in those who'd managed to outrun the wreckage. 

Arya helps as she can, but doesn't burden the woman for long, heading North instead. Anyone in that city who she cared for had made their own bed, and she could not pull them from lying in it, not even Jon. It hurt, but he was a grown man, just as Father and Robb had been.

 _"She'll be a good queen,"_ he had tried to say, but his queen's aggression and offense had the rest of their family unconvinced. Arya would gladly have had Sansa be wrong about the matter, but no - so many lives had been lost, nearly all of them innocent. If Daenerys thought that a victory, for whom was there hope, now?

Arya's in the Riverlands when Bran finds her, the raven with three eyes coming to sit upon the white horse's back as she's making a fire. He doesn't caw at her, which seems unusual, until she realizes there's something in his mouth.

A letter, it turns out. 

_Daenerys has chosen to be queen of the ashes. It is time for you, Arya, to be queen of more than the dawn. The realm deserves that, as does your beloved._

_The Stormlands have declared for Gendry. He and Sansa march south soon to press the challenge. They'll be riding for Riverrun._

She and Gendry, rule Westeros? She'd thought Bran half-mad before, but _this_? 

Yet, she knew that she desired the marriage.

She'd rather be a blacksmith's wife than bear the expectations of a proper lady, and had little true idea where a queen's duty would fall in comparison to a lady's - but if he was accepting the crown he'd need to marry, to have heirs, and she had no intention of watching Gendry marry some other woman if only to be less bound by her status. Surely if she fought at his side, too, it might lead people to realize she did not intend to simply sit quietly, no more than Nymeria or any Storm Queen. (He would need her help, besides.) 

And if Bran, with all his knowledge, knew to come to her, to suggest this, to say it was right of her, just as he'd spoken of their duty to fight the dead, how could she say that he was wrong?

Having given her a few moments of quiet thought, the fire sputters, and Bran's raven caws.

_They could be wed at Riverrun, like her parents had, and Sansa would be with them._

"Daenerys will not be the only queen at battle," she says, mainly to herself, and the raven caws again and flies away.

Arya wonders if she can convince Nymeria to come with them this time. A winter war was a time for wolves, wasn't it?

She'll ride for Hot Pie's inn on the morrow - and then, for Riverrun.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter with a bit of both POVs - an update of how they make moves towards Riverrun and eventually back to King's Landing. More exciting things ahead!

It's the warmest day Gendry's had at Winterfell when Sansa grabs him after his lessons with Gilly, lessons that seemed ever more crucial than he was ready for them to be. Every house whose surname she taught him to spell was another whose favor he needed to keep - or worse, win over - and every matter felt pressing. 

A fitting for nicer clothes is a welcome distraction, though he can't say it isn't strange spending time alone with Sansa, a woman he's primarily known of through her relationships with others they both cared for. 

She's quieter with him than Arya tended to be - she, too, does study him, though not with the same sort of look - but not standoffish, perhaps in part because Ghost has taken fondly to Gendry's presence, and he's glad of it. Despite the development of some semblance of friendship they'd had in the time since Jon and Daenerys, and then Arya, had left Winterfell, he remained horribly awkward about it.

She makes comments only about the outfitting she imagines, until she's finished with the measures for his future breeches, ones she says she'll make with sleek black leather instead of tattered brown - an unnecessary effort for a smith, an obvious one for a king. It's when she opens her mouth for what Gendry expects to be a dismissal from her chambers that she softly reveals that she knows more, perhaps much more, about him, than he's dared to mention.

"Bran tells me that our sister has survived the destruction of King's Landing. We're of the belief you ought to be made aware of that."

~~

She's only just tied her horse and slung her bag over her shoulder when she walks into the inn, and Hot Pie, naturally, doesn't bother giving Arya a moment to settle. His eyes go wide and he rushes to her, wrapping the arm with a pitcher of drink around one of her sides, trying to set down the dirty bowls in his other hand.

"I heard about - I know you - I was so scared you'd -"

His eyes look her face over, surely noting both her reticence towards physical intimacy and her injuries, and he backs up without having finished any of his sentences. 

"I'm here. That's all for now. If you want more, we'll talk alone." 

Her words are heavier with warning than she wishes they were; Hot Pie's relief at her presence is so clear and assuring, but the rest of the eyes in the room are on her now. It hadn't been many weeks since she'd been here, not long at all since he'd looked at her so sadly, thinking it less smart than she truly was to set about finishing up her list.

He nods, first just in general and then towards a booth. She makes her way to it, and sits down with a sigh, willing herself to ignore the eyes that remain upon her. She shoves her bag off her shoulder onto her seat and takes yet another deep breath. Hot Pie disappears back into his kitchen, reappearing a moment later with a steaming bowl of stew that he shuffles over to her and an empty cup he sets next to it. 

"We've got ale," he states, recalling her preference from the weeks before. She prefers a clear head even more, but an ale or two in her friend's establishment would not hurt, so she smiles at his recollection and nods her assent, resolving she'll ask for water when she's done with it. 

She sits back and sets upon devouring the stew he's given, and eyes leave her, perhaps deciding she was not so interesting after all. She lets herself wonder as to how she'll explain things to him - and later, to Sansa, to Gendry. 

Arya'd let Hot Pie speak thrice as much as she the last couple times she'd been here; this evening, he comes back to grab her emptied bowl and puts in its place a lovely wolf-shaped bread for her. This time around, it's pretty enough she's not sure she wants to eat it, but she grins and thanks him and spends a moment marveling at how good he's gotten before she eats the sweet bread anyway. 

She'll invite him into her room later, when he shows her to it. She'll be part of even more stories soon enough; she may as well share some of the past with him.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [smoke in a still water pond](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057864) by [charleybradburies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies)




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